- Worse than the game loss is the possible loss of Scuderi to injury (injuries piling up)- Hot goalies or Pens shooters making opposing goalies look good... or both? In this game, both.- In the last three losses, the Pens have 4 goals on 114 shots- Game much closer than the 4-1 score, but 1 goal per game (or 28.5 shots) is not going to win & offense/pplay needs to improve- Malkin's failure to clear zone on PK (with time) & Letang's pass to Bolland were twisting the sword already stuck in the back. Game was over, so pls don't focus on those- Dupuis/Kunitz & Jokinen/D'agostini are not creating space/havoc for Malkin/Crosby to work with. Tons of great passes, but rarely odd man opportunities- Secondary scoring is non existent, curious to see what lineup changes HCDB makes. Jussi to third? Jeffrey? Bortuzzo?- Back at it on Monday night vs. Canes

I have always known Malkin more so than Sid needs to play with good players to get points. Now with Neal out it is even more painful to watch him play. He is scoring on the power play with ease when he has all those good players around him. But when he is playing with Kobasew or D'A and only has Jokinen to pass to his production 5 on 5 is subpar. At times you can see the effort and the desire to create offence but without someone to pass to or open up space for him, he disappears.

Healing vibes to Rob Scuderi.In the penguins history and DNA; it has always been about less shots, more goals. Now all these high shot totals ; a bit of just shooting. Starts with the HOT AVS goalie. 15% of those shots into his stomach.Accuracy and the discipline to take the good shot is missing.

Bad habits creeping into their play; have to nix those in Carolina.

Evgeni needs a sitdown with Michael Therrien; somebody who will shake him up into being focused on the ice. Either with extra video time or ice time.

Since Evgeni has had everyone on his line save me , Dustin Jeffrey has some offensive skills. Why not dress him for the Carolina game.

I watched most of the game at a bar last night, so I wasn't able to pay as close attention as I otherwise might, but I think what this run of losses shows (again) is that when the Crosby line and the PP cool down, this team doesn't have much offensively. And even when they are being relatively responsible defensively, they lose close, low-scoring games, because they make a couple glaring mistakes that end with the puck in their net.

Having Bennett and Neal back will help, but as others have pointed out, Malkin's line wasn't great 5 v 5 last year either. It's too early for the "trade everybody" sort of thing going on in other threads. However, over the summer, I was among those skeptical of the idea that bringing back the same core of players and the same coaching staff would yield different results. The first couple games of the season seemed to indicate a renewed commitment to smart play, but that seems to be wearing off.

Imagine what they could have gotten for Letang?Shero has made some good moves but sometimes I think he thinks with his heart and not his head.An influx of youth is what all teams need. You can't keep the same players together and expect different results.Dupius looks like his wallet is inflated with cash, needs to assert himself more.Not much you can do with the bottom six, they are all interchangeable and clones of one another.They must try to work more on defense than offense. I thought I would never say that but it is true.What happens when Fleury has a bad start to a game? Do you replace him with Zatkoff?Inquiring minds want to know.Second Leafs goal was all on Fleury. That feeble diving pokecheck hardly ever works for him

pressure=9Pa wrote:This loss made me angrier about the Isles game. Played fine against TOR and COL, and didn't get the breaks. Losing to the Isles makes it a 3 game losing streak.

I think the mistakes were just on different ends of the ice against TOR than agaist NYI. In both games, they ended up in our net too much. Agaist COL, there weren't many mistakes, but we didn't make anyone pay for their mistakes in any of the last 3 games.

Linemates have nothing to do with the turnovers Malkin makes consistently. He is not worth theMoney the Pens pay him. Sorry that is true. 2009 was a long time ago. IAgree on Letang, but he can still be traded, maybe that contract will be a plus since teamsKnow what they will have with him?

1. Malkin: the ridiculous turnovers and lazy penalties (hooking guys in the offensive zone? really?) from him have simply got to stop. I cut him some slack on overall scoring numbers because he is stuck with some curtain-jerkers on his wings at the moment. But he wasn't lighting anything up last year at ES with Neal out there either...

2. The Letang goal was good to see. Great movement AWAY from the puck by Letang to get into a Grade A scoring spot and punish the Leafs player that had drifted too far left and too high in the zone (being aggressive, which is what PKs do nowadays) to get back into position and stop him. That's what is needed more for this PP to get PKs in check.

3. Secondary scoring is MIA. Outside of Sutter, who wasn't exactly scaring anybody to score, it was yet another game where the 3rd and 4th line was not that noticeable.

4. Tons of shots the last several games, but not getting enough quality on them. Whether that's more screens or better aggressiveness around the net... time to pick it up.

Yuch. Game seemed heartless for the Pens for me based on what I was watching.

No joke, but I felt best about our chances when Maata was on the ice. Orpik's best days are miles behind him and Letang is an anchor bringing this team into the ground. Scuds was playing very well until going out and is our most sound d-man. Sum it up and I am saying the strength of this team is becoming a big weakness.

I am so completely impressed with Joe Vitale. This guy needs to move up the minutes. Put him on whatever line you need.

This team looks and plays old and the grind of the season is just now kicking in. A lot of these old dogs are going to struggle this year. Shero signed a bunch of contracts and the poster who said he GMs with his heart couldn't be more accurate. Thankfully, our division is a complete joke.